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tv   Today  NBC  October 30, 2012 7:00am-9:00am EDT

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. good morning. sandy's furry. the his ftorek storm delivers a crippling blow throughout the northeast. new jersey takes a direct hit. new york city especially hard hit. cabs floating down the street. subway tunnels floweded. a hospital evacuated overnight. tounds still under water in connecticut and long island and daylight is just beginning to reveal the full impact of it all, tuesday, october 30th. 2012. from nbc news, this is a special edition of "today," tracking sandy, with matt lauer
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and savannah guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. and good morning. welcome to "today" on a tuesday morning. i'm savannah guthrie. >> and i'm matt lauer. the damage from sandy is widespread and extensive. while the worst of it seems to be behind us, the storm is still having an impact all up and down the northeast. this was a situation of choose your poison. some people got hit with devastating wind, others drenching rains. the storm surge did so much damage in some places it was all three of those. >> and exceeded even what forecasters had predicted, a terrible storm. many people waking up in the dark this morning. sandy officially made landfall near atlantic city, new jersey, about 8:00 p.m. last night. it was not a hurricane technically but a post-tropical cyclone that. had no bearing on its intensity and here's what we know this morning. at least 16 deaths are now being blamed on the storm here in the united states. >> early estimates put the
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damage somewhere between $10 billion and $20 billion. that would make it one of the costliest storms in u.s. history, and more than 7 million people are now without power across the entire regions. >> hundreds of thousands of those outages are height here in new york city. lower manhattan hit by a record storm surge of 13 feet. it has flooded streets and the ground zero construction site. just look at the dramatic photo taken there overnight. >> some subway stations and tunnels are flooded as well. transit officials say the system has, quote, never faced a disas ter as devastating as this, end quote. during the height of the storm, the island of manhattan was virtually cut off with almost all of the major bridges and tunnels shut down. we've got the storm covered this morning. let's start with natalie morales in lower manhattan in battery park city. natalie, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, matt. as we are just waking up, as millions are to realize the full devastation the consequences and
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aftermath of sandy, as you can see here we're still feeling the effects here, the outer bands of that storm still present here. the whitecaps behind me here on the harbor as we'll still raging. clearly the story here last night was definitely the flooding. at the height of the storm there was a 13-foot storm surge. that a record-breaker here in new york city, and as you mentioned this is a city that was plunged into darkness as well. about 650,000 people just in the city alone. more than 6 million just along the -- up and down the eastern seaboard. now, this has been a deadly storm, certainly a storm that we're just beginning to really see the full effects, and we'll understand more as soon as the sun comes up, but clearly we will then see what really has been the aftermath. waves pounded the new jersey
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coastline destroying parts of atlantic city's historic boardwalk. >> this storm as everyone has been saying it's not like any storm we've ever seen before. >> reporter: sparks flew from a con-edison explosion in manhattan, and snow fell in western virginia and tennessee, all scenes from super storm sandy, also known as frankenstrom or the storm of the century. >> this water is swallowing this neighborhood. >> reporter: it was downgraded late monday to a post-tropical cyclone, but when it hit land at around 8:00 p.m. with winds of up to 90 miles per hour, no one was spared its wrath. >> now we're seeing hurricane force wind gusts, and this is really pushing the atlantic on to the beaches here of north jersey. >> reporter: millions of people and more than half a dozen states experienced devastating flooding, and over 7 million homes lost power. raging fires spread across the tri-state area. in lower manhattan, the lights went out in the city that never
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sleeps. the power outage caused evacuations of some of the city's most vulnerable. over 200 patients were carried down stairs and out of nyu's langone medical center, including babies in critical care. a building was ripped apart, left exposed to the storm, and a construction crane hung by threads 80 stories above the ground. >> unless you own a submarine, there's no way you're getting out of new york city. >> reporter: and there is no getting in. >> what looks like a river is actually the fdr drive. >> reporter: water gushed through the city, covering everything from ground zero to the brooklyn waterfront and the new jersey p.a.t.h. train. the mta chairman spoke to the historic damage saying the new york city subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disas ter as devastating as what we experience d last night. >> we need to keep the roads clear. do not drive. let me repeat that. please, do not drive.
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>> reporter: as day breaks, the recovery effort begins, but the extent of the damage from this de deadly storm remains to be seen. now, of course, this is the city's financial center as well. the new york stock exchange will remain closed for a second day. now, this is only the second time in history that has happened. the last time back in 1888 during a blizzard. now, can you see once again, conditions have worsened here this morning. we're feeling some rain, again some high winds here once again, but certainly nothing like what we experienced yesterday at the height of this storm. matt and savannah, you talked about early damage estimates. they are saying anywhere between $10 billion and $20 billion, but it still may be too soon to tell. >> all right, natalie, downtown lower man hattan, battery park city where they saw a record storm surge. thanks, we'll check back in with you. speaking of the weather today, let's get to al roker in point pleasant beach, new jersey, once again.
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al, good morning to you. >> well, good morning, savannah. yesterday i was out there on a dune. that dune is gone, and now the ocean rushed in when it was breached last night at about 8:00. we're on ocean avenue, and can you see, as far as you can see, it's all sand. down this way there's massive flooding. the sand goes all the way down along the length of this -- this town. it's really amazing. let's look and see where sandy is right now, 90 miles west of philadelphia, 65-mile-per-hour winds and moving west northwest at 15. peak wind gusts at 90 miles per hour out on the island in islip. 86 in westerly massachusetts. washington, d.c. saw wind gusts and today wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour will not be uncommon throughout parts of the atlantic, even as far west as lake erie. take a look at predicted wind gusts going on starting from this morning. buffalo 36, detroit 48. new york city 30-mile-per-hour gusts. by tomorrow the winds are still
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breezy. not quite as bad. the highest water rises we had from kings point, over 12 feet of water, new haven 9 feet. set a record of wave heights off sandy hook of 32.5 feet and the rain was a big deal. wilewood, new jersey, almost 12 inches of rain, ocean city 7 inches, rehoboth beach, delaware, 7 inches. coastal advisories from banger, maine down to washington, d.c. the heaviest rainfall will be up into new england, caribou, maine, on into concord, new hampshire. we have a possibility of a severe thunderstorm watch being issued for much of new england later on this morning. so we're not done with sandy yet. there could still be more power outages, and, matt, it looks like, again, this will probably be easily called the storm of the century. matt? >> al roquener point pleasant beach, new jersey.
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al, thank you very much. chris christie is the governor of that state of new jersey. good morning to you. >> good morning, matt. >> you guys took a direct hit, and i know you'll probably not know the extent of the damage until daylight and you get to see the areas by ground and by air, but based on the reports you've been getting overnight, what's the state of your state? >> it's a major disaster, matt. we have over 2.4 million people without power across the state. we've had flooding in the raritan bay and newark area. the city of newark is 95% without power due to substation flooding. all that came from the tidal surge that came up from the storm through raritan bay and newark bay, the same thing you see affecting new york city, and we have a battered, battered new jersey shore that i hope to tour a little bit later on today, but i think the losses are going to be almost incalculable. >> yeah. i was watching reports all afternoon and evening, governor, from long branch and point pleasant beach and atlantic
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city, and do you have a lot of people that you think you're going to have to go out and account for this morning, search-and-rescue missions to find people that you haven't heard from? >> we are in the midst of search-and-rescue missions in atlantic city now, matt. we're in the midst of search-and-rescue missions in moonachie, new jersey, where there was significant flooding from, again, the tidal surge last night. that's up in bergen county. we've done a number of rescues already last night and through this morning. we have search and rescue teams positioned throughout the state. they are doing that right now. unfortunately, we've had three deaths so far in new jersey from the storm. we're hoping to make sure we don't add to that total. >> you need help obviously. i know you spoke to president obama on a couple of occasions yesterday. he's offered his help. what's the federal government's response been like so far? >> federal government's response has been great. i was on the phone at midnight again last night with the president personally. he has expedited the designation
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of new jersey as a major disaster area. i was on the phone with fema at 2:00 a.m. this morning to answer the questions they needed answers to get that designation, and the president has been outstanding in this, and so the folks of fema, craig fugate and his folks have been excellent >> i know you took exception with the handling of this situation by the mayor of atlantic city, lorenzo langford. you were very upset that he didn't evacuate that city or all of that city and instead offered some people shelter in some city shelters, and you said that he was a rogue mayor and said, quote, i don't have a feud with the guy, but i wish he would do his job. a little time has passed between those comments and right now, the emotional level has come down. do you still feel that way? >> listen, the fact of the matter is i feel badly for the folks in atlantic city who listened to him and sheltered in atlantic city, and i guess my -- my anger has turned to sympathy for those folks, and we're in the midst now of trying to go in
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and save them. daylight has come. we've got an urban search and rescue team with,000 both and 20 state police personnel. we have search and rescue teams down there as well. we're going to try to save the folks. i'm sorry that they received mixed messages. for some reason the mayor gave folks a mixed message. we need to get these people out and safe, and that's what we're going to do. >> finally like so many other states, the state is dealing with a financial crisis. the budget is very tight. how much of the bill for the cleanup in your state is going to have to come out of state's coffers? can you afford it? >> well, listen, we have to afford, it mai. the fact of the matter is i think we'll get significant federal assistance on this and major disaster declaration last night by the president is incredibly helpful in that regard. we'll work with our federal partners on this. if i have to make cuts in the budget in other places to make sure we afford this i'll do it. too early to tell on that.
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i don't really know. i spoke to my budget folks yesterday, and they told me that that's not something they are concerned about at the moment. not something i'm concerned about at the moment. the first thing we've got to be concerned about is minimizing loss of life, saving people who need to be saved and then we'll move from there, and new jersey, listen, you know this, matt. new jersey is a tough place. we'll recover from this, and we'll be just fine and whatever we need to spend to get it done, we'll do what we need to do to make sure that gets done. >> we're your neighbors in this, and our thoughts go out to the people of new jersey. governor, good luck to you. >> thank you, matt. >> all right. we're going to speak to the mayor of atlantic city when he joins us in a little while. >> all right, matt. thanks. we're going to go to long beach, long island where mara schiavocampo is standing by with a live report. mara, good morning to you. >> reporter: savannah, good morning. you know, there's something i want to point out to you because this is supposed to be city streets, but right now it is totally and completely a beach, and that's because the ocean last night during high tide at the height of this storm was
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flowing through this streets like a raging river. it looked like the kind of thing you might white water raft on flowing blocks and blocks into the street. when low tide came in it receded, and now it's high tide again. we can literally see this water starting to move in at a very fast pace. my guess would be that within the next hour we'll see water all through here again. let me show you a little bit of the damage that we've seen. of course, we have some water left over. can you see we're looking at the ocean now and how far it's come in. it's supposed to be much further back than, that and can you see the pace that it's moving towards us here and towards the city and towards the streets, and if we can look over here to some of the damage from last night, you know, most of the damage has been from flooding by far, not from the wind. windows are still intact for the most part, but you can see people's garage doors have been turned into pieces of wood essentially and that water has rushed all through these homes for probably about one story. our hotel, for example, the
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entire first floor was filled with water. that really highlighted the major concern that officials had here which was flooding from the storm surge, not from rainfall, and that's exactly what happened. but long island, being a pens latt way it ula the way it is, it got it from the ocean and much of the bayside. much of this area was flooded from two directions. power outages, seeing massive numbers here. approaching 850,000 without power, and the power authority is warning it could be up to ten days before they get that restored. savannah. >> all right. mara schiavocampo on long beach this morning, thank you. connecticut governor dannel malloy is calling this the worst water event in his state's history. nbc's katy tur is in stonington, connecticut this morning. what's the scene there. >> reporter: thousands trapped but could have been so much worse without the mandatory evacuations. luckily a number of people did get out. we do have to report two deaths for you this morning.
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one was a woman in mansfield. a tree fell on her house. we're told that she was electrocuted when power lines came down with it. also a couple of injuries in that house, but they were not life-threatening, as well as a fifthner eaton, connecticut, who was driving when a tree fell on his car. right now the weather has certainly calmed down here. there's not so many reports about what's coming out of this state right now, because there are so many people here without power. 635,000 customers without power right now. that's because of flooding. that's because of high winds. it's also because of massive trees like the one you're seeing behind me. if we come back out here live, can you see this tree is huge. it's fallen on to this house. this is just one of many trees across the stonington area and across the state that are bringing down power lines. they are blocking roads and making things very dangerous this morning. we are in the east part of connecticut. we're told it got much worse over in the west part of concorporation and i'm sure you'll be able to ask governor malloy more about that as you talk to him right now.
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guys. >> thank you. connecticut cover dannel malloy is with us right now. governor, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> yesterday you used the word catastrophic to describe what would happen with this storm. did it live up to that expectation? how bad is it? >> it's pretty bad. the fire fighter died in easton is emblematic of that. we have trees down everywhere, poles down everywhere. the amount of flooding damage is unbelievable. we had thousands of people trapped in homes at the height of the storm last night. in fact, i went on tv to tell people to stay in place because we didn't want people to try to be swimming out or walking out through high water or driving out. having said all of that, i think the connecticut folks responded pretty well. most heeded the call. most did the right thing to get out of harm's way. we had a series of fires last night in greenwich and saybrook. we lost a number of houses and housing units to fires, to
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flooding, to wind damage. obviously there will be a lot more assessment today. we know we have over 635,000 customers without power. we know we have water damage to at least three if not four major sewer treatment facilities that will take some period of time to repair. so we've got a lot of work ahead of us. i want to thank the president. united states who did a magnificent job in fema who had really done some amazing early work to get us ready, but now the hard work will start. >> and governor, you talked about the evacuations. do you have any sense of how many people may still be stranded this morning? do you have search and rescue efforts under way? >> we do have sear and rescue efforts under way. we have -- we had mobilized 850 troops. they have been deployed throughout the state. we have a number of teams, regional teams, as well as others that are responding. the water's receded for a period of time, though they will start to come back to some extent, much lower than what we saw last
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night, but, you know, we're going door to door and house to house to make sure people are okay and that if they need our assistance at this point, we're making it available. we had thousands of people in shelters last night, certainly hundreds of thousands of people probably staying with friends or relatives elsewhere in connecticut. i'm very grateful to the people of connecticut to responding. our municipal officials by and large did a magnificent job preparatory to the storm so that handling the storm at its height was more manageable than we might have thought. only because of the hard work that was done. >> well, a long day and days ahead for you and your team there. connecticut governor dannel malloy, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> matt? >> savannah, let's go back to the damage here in new york city. nbc's jeff rossen is on the streets of lower manhattan. jeff, good morning. jeff, can you hear me? >> reporter: i'm good. >> apparently we've lost communication with jeff. you'll be seeing that obviously throughout the day, a lot of satellite issues and communications issues.
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one of the big stories here in new york city was a construction crane on 57th street between seventh and eighth avenue right in midtown manhattan. you're looking at youtube video of what happen. that was aiding in the construction of the tallest residential building in new york city, some 90 stories high, when the wind grabbed it and flipped it backwards, and that caused major panic in that section of the city. >> no question about it. there you have a live picture of that crane still dangling this morning. matt, i know you walked past it. there were moments when it was blowing in the wind >> you couldn't get too close, blocked things off from fifth over to ninth avenue. i stood on 57th street and took a couple pictures with my phone and could you see sections that have crane swinging in the breeze and the fear was that would come crashing down, almost 1,000 feet in the air. imagine what would happen if that came crashing to the ground. >> needless to say they have
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evacuated the vicinity there. we want to go back to al in the jersey shore. al, good morning again to you. >> this is ocean avenue, and can you see it is covered with sand. this entire area covered completely with sand. the atlantic beach, the atlantic ocean out that way, those were the dunes that i was standing on. they have been eradicated, and that allowed everything to come, in an then as you look down here along philadelphia avenue, look at the flooding. it goes all the way down as far as you can see, and scenes like this repeated throughout point pleasant beach, new jersey, and really the jersey shore. it is just a lot of devastation, and we have no idea really how bad it is. >> good morning.ing ont' conditions will improve as we head through the day today. temperatures in the 40's today. the wind still make just up
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>> and that's your latest weather. matt? >> all right, al. thanks very much. a long morning ahead. we'll be here to cover the aftermath of this storm from start to finish. more of the wrath of sandy, but first, this is "today" on nbc.
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just ahead, sandy's widespread damage to the northeast after its direct hit on new jersey. we'll go live to atlantic city and talk to the mayor there coming up. plus, the impact away from the storm's center on travel and the presidential race. the election one week from today, but first a check of your local news. have fun ♪ ♪ it's got something for everyone ♪
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>> this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> good morning. i am stan stovall. here is tony pann. >> things will settle down as we head through the day. we have a cold rain across baltimore. most of it is light to moderate rain. you can see the computers trying to analyze the snowflakes. temperatures in the 30's and 40's right now. there will be minor flooding
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problems across the area, especially across the coast of the chesapeake bay. the wind is pushing some of the water off of the day. -- bay. forecast for today -- periods of rain, it will be windy. winds treads settle down into the afternoon. costs close to 20 later on today. don't be surprised if you see a couple of snow flakes mixed in with the raindrops. we will send it over to sarah. >> we want to remind you to stay off the roads. we have restrictions in place until noon in the city. not a whole lot in the way traffic out there. we will continue to deal with problems with debris in the way and, of course, we're expecting to see more downed trees because the ground is saturated.
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they bridge remains closed. we are awaiting word to see when they are going to reopen it, but it was pending inspections. once we get word on that, we will pass that along to you. rest of the area bridges have been reopened, many of them still have warnings, though. 795 and franklin boulevard looks good. here is what it looks like an 68. lots of snow in western maryland.
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. 7:30 now on a tuesday morning. it's the 30th day of october, 2012, as the northeast deals with the historic damage from hurricane sandy. looking at some flooding images. atlantic city was one of the cities along the jersey shore that took an awful lot of damage. the water from the ocean in some places meeting the water from the bay, and there is some controversy surrounding evacuation efforts from that city with the governor of new jersey criticizing the mayor. we're going to be talking to that mayor in just a couple of minutes. meanwhile inside studio 1a i'm matt lauer alongside savannah guthrie. he have rain and further flooding remain threats today.
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>> in new york city the storm surge reached a record of more than 13 feet, flooding tunnels, subway stations and the electrical systems that power wall street and utility companies across the country telling people who lost power today it may be a week or more before electricity is fully restored. just ahead we'll check in with the man in charge of the federal response to this mega storm craig fugate. let's start with nbc's jeff rossen who is here in new york city checking on the damage. jeff, good morning to you. what are you seeing? >> reporter: hey, savannah, good morning. we were driving around overnight, and we were in the east village a of manhattan right now. this entire area was completely underwater, so trwrwater, so th receded now. look what it's left behind. cars are literally strewn through the new york city streets. you are seeing this everywhere. these are cars that were parked along the side and literally floated into the middle. half of them have water damage. in some cases we're told the water was up to here on these vehicles. i want to show you something
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else as well, bill, as we walk through here. here's another car on a main avenue that got into an accident with a con-ed car. this is the power company. people trying to put the electricity back on, and the issue now, we just talked to con-ed, one of their power plants here. we said when do you think the power will be back for all of these people? and as you know there are millions without. one worker told me i don't even know where to start. that's the situation here. power is out everywhere, no traffic lights. looking at these apartment buildings, and people now with first daylight are just now beginning to wake up and see. you can see cars are strewn all throughout. i've never seen anything like this, and i've been covering news in this city for over a decade, savannah. >> all right. jeff rossen on the streets of new york which look a little bit more like a parking lot more than usual these days. >> as we mentioned the storm came ashore very close to the city of atlantic city along the
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jersey shore. there's massive flooding there. wcau's ted greenberg is there. ted, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, matt, yes. the wind is whipping here in atlantic city still, though not as strong as it was yesterday. we still have rain and, yes, can you see that we still have issues with flooding. some of the water has receded, but several parts of atlantic city still dealing with flooding this morning. the flooding caused by sandy and its tidal surge here was historic, the worst many in the resort have ever seen. we drove through atlantic city early this morning. we saw a huge amount of debris as a result of all of that water, including large wooden planks strewn about on the streets. some of that debris appeared to have come from a section of the famous boardwalk that was ripped apart by sandy yesterday. really an incredible and surreal sight to see during our travels yesterday. streets flooded with several feet of water, with large sections of the mangled
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boardwalk floating high. the coastliny is veered severe beach erosion as the ocean washed over protective bay ofiers and into streets. large sections of the atlantic city and atlantic county new jersey where we are is without electricity this morning with 80,000 power customers in the dark in atlantic county, more than 50% of the customers served. an overnight curfew was in effect until 6:00 a.m. in atlantic city, though much of the resort resembled a ghost town. many of the city's residents complied with a mandatory evacuation order, although everyone did not. we're told about 300 people stayed in shelters within the resort overnight, and we've seen search and rescue teams out this morning in the neighborhood to assist anyone who may be stranded this morning. again, the water slowly receding here in atlantic city, but the back bays are still so full of water because they haven't had much of an opportunity to drain back into the ocean, and there is concern about another high
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tide coming up later this morning. matt? >> all right. ted greenberg of wcau, thank you very much. lorenzo langford is the mayor of atlantic city and joins us now on the phone. mayor langford, good morning to you. >> good morning to you as well. >> what's your assessment of post-sandy atlantic city? >> well, let me say this. as devastating as this storm was with respect to property damage, i think the glass is half full and not half empty. we've experienced a minimal loss of life and injury, and i think for that all of us ought to be thankful and send up a big mighty prayer >> you know, your name got in the news yesterday, perhaps not for the reason that you had hoped, but the governor of new jersey called you out for your failure to fully evacuate the city. he called for that evacuation, and you offered some residents of atlantic city shelter in city shelters. talk to me about the decision. what happened. >> well, first of all, let me say this, the governor is either misinformed and ill advised or
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simply just deciding to prevaricate. that's not what happens. here we are in the throes of a major catastrophe and the governor has chosen a time such as this to play politics. i think it's reprehensible that he would stoop to the level to try to make a political situation out of something that is so serious at this situation. >> well, here, let me tell you what the governor said. he said for whatever reason mayor langford urged people to stay in the shelters in the city despite my admonition to evacuation. he gave them comfort and for some reason to say. >> what's his source? >> i'm asking you. did it happen? is it accurate? >> i'm telling you that that is absolutely false and the governor needs to say where the source is, where did he get his information, he's dead wrong. he'll join us a little later in the morning and we'll ask him that question. how many people did spend the night in shelters in your city, mayor? >> well, fortunately most of our
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residents did heed the repeated warnings that they should flee the city. as you know, we are a barrier island and the clarion call did go out from the governor's island to suggest everybody flee the island and fortunately most of the residents in the city of atlantic city heeded that advice. unfortunately, as there will be the case there are always those who will not heed the warning and decide to stay. it's better to have options than not need them than to need options and not have them. we had a plan in place for those few residents who would decide at the last minute that they would not try to heed our warning and vacate the city but would try to hunker down, tough it out only to find that at some other time they wanted to flee. we had that contingency plan in place. >> mayor lorenzo langford, mr. mayor, if you're free a little later in the morning, perhaps we'll try to get you and the governor on at the same time. appreciate your time this morning. >> i would love nothing better than that, than to confront the governor mano-a-mano. >> all right. we'll see if we can arrange
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that. thank you very much. savannah? >> we want to go back now to al who is along the jersey shore. al, good morning. >> well, good morning. again, sandy is 90 miles west of philadelphia, so it is still a potent system, and in fact we have coastal flood watches and warnings right along the coastline. we've got coastal flood warnings. inland we have flash flood watches and flood watches. plus, the winds are still going to be a big deal, all the way as far south as atlanta. we have wind advisories as far north and west as detroit, and we've got a major snow storm going on. blizzard warnings for parts of virginia and west virginia as well. in fact, take a look at the snowfall amounts. we're expecting anywhere from another one to two feet of snow from bluefield all the way up to elkins and anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of snow into central and western ohio. so sandy still packing a potent punch, and the winds are howling
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as far west as the great lakes. that's what's going on >> good morning. what is left of sandy is still drifting through parts of the area. it will be windy and cold today. the >> we're in the middle of the wrap around rain bands from sandy right now, savannah, with the wind picking up again. back to you. >> all right, al. thank you very much. a lot more on sandy as we continue here. the widespread flooding, damage and its impact on the presidential race. the election just one week from today, but first these messages. living with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis
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magnitude of the damage here, but if you could characterize it, how bad is it? >> it's bad enough that based upon calls with both governors from new york and new jersey, the president took the increasing step of issuing major disaster declarations to improve assistance for those individuals heavily hit. they can call 1-800-261-fema or go to disaster.gov. we're still dealing with a lot of impacts. focus on new jersey and new york, we've got connecticut and pennsylvania and others as far to the west as west virginia dealing with a blizzard so this is very much a response operation. things are still occurring. the storm is not over, but, again, based on this, the president took extraordinary acts to turn on even more assistance in some of the hardest hit areas, and we continue to work with other governors to increase the amount of assistance we're providing. >> there's so much going on
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here. there's the rain and snow and power outages. what is your top priority this morning, your top concern? >> safety. search and rescue operations that are under way, again, on the federal side, the u.s. coast guard is our lead federal agency. we've dispatched several of the urban search and rescue teams with swift water capabilities. again, because it's still raining, and now with the blizzard in west virginia, our concern is primary life safety, and then we'll start getting to the critical infrastructure. we've had hospitals, nursing homes impacted, power outages. the list of things is enormous. first thing is keep people alive, keep people safe, rescue those in danger. >> are you able to even estimate how many people might be stranded and in need of a rescue at this hour? >> no. i don't real very those numbers. again, we're working through the governors' teams on what additional assistance. the governors have called out their guard. they have a lot of their own capabilities. we're augmenting that, but right now our goal is to make sure
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that as these needs are identified, resources that have already been moved into the region, are there supporting the governors' teams. >> before i let you go, i have to ask you. there was an alert declared for the oyster creek nuclear power plant in new jersey because of too much water intake. do you know what became of that? is it secure? >> yeah. right now there's no imminent threat of releases. there's no protective actions around the plant. we're working very closely with the nuclear regulatory commission for that and any of the other power plants that are in the path of this storm. again, that is one of those issues that we work very closely with the plant operators, nuclear regulatory commission to ensure all steps are being taken to ensure the safety of the plants. some of these reporting requirements do those in the severity of the storm that they have to make those notifications based upon conditions that. does not mean that they are in an imminent threat at the plant. it means they have to report these because of the severity of the storm. >> fema administrator craig fugate, good to have you this morning, thank you.
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>> thank you. >> and we are back with much more of "today" right after this. hey! you kids almost ready? i've got breakfast waiting for you. wooo! uh oh. what? mom's doing her exercise video again. when mom's on a health kick, all of us are. and now she's made us breakfast. uh oh. [ male announcer ] eggo nutri-grain waffles. you know it's made with 8 grams of whole grain and is a good source of fiber. all they know is it tastes great. eggo nutri-grain waffles.
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difficulty getting to that spot. >> it's a spot where the houses are very close together. they call it the walk, and, yeah, it was really tough for the fire fighters to get in. i saw some images of fire fighters really kind of at a distance being very frustrated that they couldn't get in, but that's clearly a neighborhood devastated by the flames. >> we've even seen reports that some of the hydrants in the area were underwater, not surprisingly. of course, a lot of images are coming in and people telling us about the flooding that's happened in their neighborhoods. we saw in al's live short a former street is now basically a beach covered in sand. >> yeah. i mean, one of the images that i saw that was just startling to me, the brooklyn battery tunnel leading from manhattan over to brooklyn, just a ton of water inside. obviously rushing in from street level. i understand there was some water in the mid-town tunnel. lincoln tunnel stayed open throughout this storm, but there was a time when new york city, the island of manhattan, seemed awfully isolated from the rest of the five boroughs. >> when you think of all the city has been with, to hear the
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head of the subway system say in its 108-year history they have never experienced anything like this, incredible. >> just ahead, more on the storm and what it means for the presidential race with just a week to go. ♪ [ ding! ] losing your chex mix too easily? time to deploy the boring-potato chip decoy bag. then no one will want to steal the deliciousness. [ male announcer ] with a variety of tastes and textures, only chex mix is a bag of interesting.
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>> this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> time for a check on sandy's movements of the coast. >> things will settle down as we move through the day. we are in the cold air. chilly rain is falling. as the radar is indicating, there are couple snowflakes in the northwest suburbs. temperatures are in the upper 30's and low 40's. that is what you want to dress for to start the day. south wins pushing off the day.
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high tides may come in a touch above average today. steady rain will taper off, the temperatures will stay in the 40's. let's see what is happening on the roadways. >> not a whole lot of traffic out there, which is what we are expected. mandatory restrictions in the city until noon. you are not allowed to be out there unless you are an essential worker. bay bridge is still closed pending inspections could rest of the area bridges are open. franklin boulevard, still looking wet. lots of debris to watch for if you are heading out in the next few minutes. flooding is still an issue. we will switch over quickly to
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traffic. 50 and sandy point, watching the closure there. closure there.
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i've always been lucky. flew 37 bombing missions over germany. made it home every time. i'm lucky to have good friends who are all still around, and we're all lucky to have a friend named ben. ben's protected our medicare and veterans' benefits. and he's helping my 13 grandchildren afford college. he's my friend, ben. i hope he's your friend, too. i'm ben cardin, and i'm honored to approve this message.
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8:00 now on this tuesday morning, the 30th of october, 2012. you're looking at a daring coast guard rescue at sea during sandy. it happened off the coast of north carolina, and coming up we're going to talk to the brave people who risked their lives to save the crew of the "hms bounty," but, of course, there was also loss of life. good morning again. i'm savannah guthrie alongside matt lauer. >> i can hear what they would say, we were just doing our jobs and when you hear what they did to save those 14 people, they went way up and beyond the call of duty. remarkable. the worst of sandy may be over, but floodwaters could rise in lots of the part of the northeast this morning as high tide rolls in. al will have more on that in
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just a couple of minutes. >> all right ahead, sandy has both president obama and governor romney standing down on the politics with the presidential race exactly one week away. they have canceled their public events today and friday's all-important jobs report might be delayed. we'll talk about the storm's impact on the race and the economy with chuck todd and cnbc's jim cramer just ahead. >> a quick note for you. we're sad to say that due to sandy we will not be having our halloween celebration on the plaza tomorrow, so if you were planning to join us out here in costume, we want you to stay home, stay safe. we will get that done at some other point. things are more important. >> they are indeed. you'll have to put the ponte hose away for another year. get the latest on the storm, the record flooding we've seen in lower manhattan. let's get to natalie morales in battery park city in the southern tip of mat hannan. natalie, good morning to you again. >> reporter: good morning to you, savannah, once again. we're fully now beginning to realize the devastation of sandy. as you have mentioned in the
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reporting, at least 16 deaths total being blamed on this storm. downtown here in lower manhattan, can you see the waters have receded. at the height of the storm though here in battery park there was a storm surge of 13 feet. that is a record-breaker here in new york city. at least 6 million people are without power along the eastern seaboard, and hundreds of thousands of those here in new york city still without power as well. in new jersey we are told that a quarter of the state as well is without power. this is the city's, of course, financial center, the heart of the world's markets, and today once again the new york stock exchange is remaining closed for a second day. this is only the second time in its history that this has happened. the last time was back in 1888 after a blizzard. as you've also been reporting, a lot of subways experiencing as well problems. seven subway tunnels flooded along the -- under the east
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river as well, so the metro transit authority as you heard, the chief saying that this is the worst devastation in the subway system's 108-year history, and getting in and out of the city is still proving to be a very difficult challenge in and around the city as well, but all major bridges and tunnels are closed except for the lincoln tunnel which remains opened. by the way, i'll point out across the river this way, you see here is jersey city, the financial center of jersey city right there, and they are also experiencing a lot of what we're experiencing down here in lower manhattan. up north just a bit is hoboken, new jersey, which i can tell you from firsthand experience where my family, is they are all safe, but that town is pretty much submerged in a lot of water. there is no getting in and out of hoboken, new jersey, as well, a city of about 50,000 there. a lot still feeling the devastating impacts of this storm. matt? >> thanks very much. back to al still down in point
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pleasant beach, new jersey. al, good morning again. >> well, good morning, matt, and, again, this is the source of all the misery here in point pleasant beach. there's the atlantic ocean. we were on a dune there yesterday. if you recall, that dune had been built after a northeastner 1992 to hold back the sea. well, around 8:00 last night it gave up the ghost, and you can see what the results are. we are talking about massive devastation here. sand as far as you can see. and we have folks getting ready to do some taping. ron allen and his crew down there, but if you look beyond that. you can see flooding that goes down philadelphia avenue. the latest,g# speaking of philadelphia, sandy is 90 miles west of philadelphia, pennsylvania. still has 65-mile-per-hour winds. it's moving west northwest at 15 miles per hour. the winds were brutal. 90-mile-per-hour gusts in islip, allentown 70 and boston 62 miles per hour, but the wind is still
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a big story. up to banger, maine, out to michigan and down to georgia, we're talking about wind advisories, wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour, even to the great lakes, lake erie, gust of near 70. look at the prediction for lake gusts today. buffalo 36 and 30 in new york city. 43 in cincinnati, and as we move through the day, today into tomorrow morning, the winds do start to die down, but they are still pretty strong. >> good morning. conditions will improve as we head through the day today. temperatures in the 40's today. the wind still make just up
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>> this is where we were last night, these buildings. now, savannah, they are rendered uninhabitable because of the damage that's been done to them by the atlantic ocean. back to you. >> all right, al. thank you so much. >> we're going to have more on the storm in a moment. right now let's get a check of the morning's other headlines. tamron hall is sitting at the news5a desk. good morning >> >> good morning. sandy's steam is being felt on the campaign trail as analysts feel the extreme weather could disrupt voting in key swing states including virginia and ohio. meantime, both the president and the republican rival mitt romney are angling to project authority in the face of the present disaster, both abandoning campaign events to speak with emergency officials. we'll have more on this coming up for you in a live report. two nato service members were killed today in southern afghanistan's helmand province. it appears to be the latest in a string of insider attacks. officials say the victims were shot by a man wearing an afghan
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police uniform. baking giant ubsag announced massive layoffs today on the heels of a $2.3 billion loss for the third quarter. most of the 10,000 jobs cut will be in great britain and in the united states. the layoffs total about 15% of the ubs total work force. one of hockey's premiere events might fall victim to the nhl lockout. espn new york reports that this year's winter classic may be cancelled. the league and players union have not held negotiations in nearly two weeks, and regular season games have been cancelled through november. there appears to be high-level fallout from the apple maps fiasco. the longtime head of iphone software development scott forestall will be leaving next year. apple did not give a reason but it was forestall's division that oversaw the software update that replaced google maps with
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apple's first mapping app. that app drew so much criticism apple apologized to its millions of customers. intrepid nbc late night host jimmy fallon did not let monday's storm stop his comic relief. fallon opened his show, you see there, on the almost deserted streets of manhattan and then delivered his monologue without an audience. >> thank you very much, thank you. welcome to "late night with jimmy fallon," everybody. please, please, keep it down. >> you're performing as if there was an audience. >> well, i'm assuming that people at home will be watching either on their laptop or get their generators out and then they are going to want to see and want to leave room to laugh. >> everybody. >> david letterman also taped his show without an audience because of the storm, joking that if he were home, he'd be boarding up television sets.
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it is now 8:08. back to matt and savannah. sometimes you need a little laughter to keep from you crying when you look out at some of the damage. the show does go on sometimes. >> it does go on. thank you very much. >> we have our own laugh track here with the crew. >> as long as we have mark here, we're okay. >> coming up next, the coast guard members who put their lives on the line for that dramatic rescue at sea during sandy. we'll talk to them right after this. [ ding dong ] hey -- little m&m's! wow! great costumes. what are you guys -- like four or five?
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coast guard aircraft are on the scene, also cutters out looking off the coast of north carolina for that last missing crew member, the captain, but as you said, 14 other people are lucky to be alive after a heroic and daring rescue mission. >> firs survivors coming out of the raft. >> reporter: in tropical storm force winds crew members of the ill-fated ship wearing orange survival suits are hoisted aboard coast guard helicopters. for the chopper crews, it was a daring mission into the teeth of the storm. >> the transit out there was relatively low level, about 300 feet so we could stay out of the clouds. there was a lot of rain and wind >> reporter: drama beganzf5 sun night when the "hms bounty," a replica of the 18th century vessel that made captain blye famous began taking on water, its pumps failing and losing propulsion. the decision was made early monday morning to abandon ship in two life routes. the lieutenant commander and
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co-pilot lieutenant jane pena piloted the first of two jayhawk helicopters that soon arrived over the scene. >> the first survivor to be found, the only one, that happened to be in the water. he was in a survival suit, and pretty much just laid out in the water. >> reporter: 13 others were huddled in enclosed life boats. coast guard video captured a rescue swimmer being lowered to them and in to the heaving ocean. >> being down there in the waves is more like being in a washing ma scene. >> reporter: petty officer todd tried to help the crew. >> i hopped in and said, hey, i'm dan. i heard you need a ride. there was a chuckle between them as well >> reporter: ship was featured in marlon brando's 1962 film "mutiny on the bounty" as well as a sequel to "pirates of the carribean." the ship left connecticut on thursday en route to isn't petersburg, florida. on saturday as it attempted to steer clear of the hurricane, a posting on the ship's facebook
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page read rest assured, the "bounty" is safe and in very capable hands. "bounty eat" current voyage is a calculated decision, not at all irresponsible or with a lack of foresight as some have suggested. robert hanson is the ship's owner. >> he was heading way out east to try to go around it, and we just don't know what happened yet. >> reporter: the coast guard debriefed members of the crew trying to get a handle on exactly what happened. meantime, matt, family members of the crew have arrived here in elizabeth city to bring them home. >> all right. lester hold down in elizabeth city this morning. lester, thank you very much. three members of the coast guard team that helped rescue the crew of the "hms bounty" are with us now. lieutenant commander steve bond, lieutenant jenny fields and petty officer daniel todd, good morning to all of you. let me just start by saying job well done. steve >> thank you. >> steve, let me start with you. you were the pilot of the second
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jayhawk rescue helicopter sent to the scene. what was it like navigateing? what was the situation like when you got there? >> well, it was a little difficult from the location. [ poor audio ] there were very strong winds, low clouds. once we got on scene thankfully just after sunrise, so we were able to do everything without the night vision goggles and see everybody in the water. >> daniel, i want to talk about what you said. you got down into -- you were one of the guys lowered down into the sea. you got to that life boat and you tried to calm everybody down by saying, hi, i'm dan. you sound like a pretty cool customer. and then you went down and one by one you brought those people up to the helicopter. you didn't do it once. did you it nine times from what
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i've heard yourself. it's a pretty remarkable feat. does the training just kick in? >> yes, it does. you know, we're comfortable in our own abilities to be able to go out there and do that. i mean, for me it was kind of luck of the draw. i was able to go out there and be able to perform those tasks yesterday, but any one of the people that i work with here in my rescue swimmer shop, i work with 13 other guys, and any one of them could have done what i did yesterday, so, you know, it's -- it's just -- it is what we do, kind of like you said earlier. >> jenny, i know you had a chance to speak to some of the people that were rescued. tell me a little bit about their emotional state of mind. >> when we first started pulling the first few survivors in the helicopter, they were a little taken back and a little scared about being up there with us, and as more survivors came into the helicopter, they started seeing their friends, got a little bit more happy, a little bit more excited to be out of
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situation that they were in, as we departed the scene they started to realize they were leaving and there were people still left behind. we definitely stayed out there and kept looking. >> you talk about people left behind. the coast guard retrieved 14 people on monday morning and later that evening another crew member was found and that person died. the captain of the ship has yet to be located. given what you saw in terms of the conditions of the seas off the coast guard there, what are your hopes, do you think, of finding that person alive? >> well, we have a lot of people that work in the coast guard. we have command centers and district staff that all work together. they have computers and algorithms and analyze the weather and the survivability time and they let us know to plan the searches accordingly to have the best possible outcome. >> i should say, we should thank you for what you do on a daily basis, but we want to thank you what you do in particular on days like yesterday when it
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takes all your skills to save your lives. job well done, guys. >> thank you. >> all right. and we're going to have more of "today" on a tuesday morning right after this. [ male announcer ] on one corner, one pharmacist started it all: charles walgreen had a mission to help people be happy and healthy. from inventing the first chocolate malt... to creating a nonprofit pharmacy for our troops... to the first child safety caps. walgreens has been innovating for over a hundred years. and we're just getting started. with more and more ways to be well every day. here at the corner of happy and healthy.
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neither candidate for president may hit the campaign trail for another couple of days which leaves, of course, precious little time to persuade voters in this incredibly close election. with the campaign largely on hold, president obama hunkered down at white house prepared the nation monday for what could be sandy's long lasting impact. >> the public needs to prepare for the fact that this is going to take a long time for us to clean up. the good news is we will clean up, and we will get through this >> reporter: president awoke monday in orlando for what was supposed to be a one-day three-state blitz alongside former president clinton. instead, he and aides called an audible and they headed back to washington to focus on the storm. at the midday briefing mr. obama insisted the campaign was not on his mind. >> i'm worried about the impact on families, and i'm worried about the impact on our first responders. i'm worried about the impact on our economy and on transportation. you know, the election will take care of itself next week.
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>> reporter: meanwhile, for much of monday mitt romney tried to walk a fine line, balancing campaigning in ohio and iowa with compassion for storm victims. in ohio he appealed for americans to put politics aside. >> we've faced these kind of challenges before, and as we have, as soon as americans come together, and this looks like another time when we need to come together, all across the country, even here in ohio. >> reporter: still, romney did not entirely abandon politics. >> the people of the entire nation are counting on ohio because my guess is -- my guess is that if ohio votes me in as president, i'll be the next president of the united states. >> reporter: both candidates have cancelled all of their own public events for today. the president was supposed to be in colorado and wisconsin, and mr. romney had planned to be in new hampshire, but this doesn't mean the campaigns are not still battling below the radar. the latest flashpoint, a romney tv ad running in ohio making this claim about jeep. >> obama took gm and chrysler into bankruptcy and sold
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chrysler to italians who are going to build jeeps in china. >> reporter: campaigning in ohio with former president clinton, vice president biden blasted the ad as false. >> chrysler has fellow bliged to go public and say there is no truth to this. jeep has no intention of shifting production of its jeep models out of north america to china. >> reporter: and while mitt romney is technically not campaigning today, he's doing a storm relief event, savannah, in the state of ohio. >> all right. chuck, a lot of folks are asking us this morning, is there a possibility with these widespread power outages that could last days, if not weeks, is there a chance the election day itself could be delayed? >> reporter: it's very unlikely. look, the presidential election day is something that is set in the constitution. now, states run elections, and they can decide to postpone, if they wanted to, it's happened before. new york city, of course, postponed new york city
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elections on 9/11 on the day that it happened. they postponed that. now, that said what did come up yesterday during the fema calls with craig fugate and state officials was could states get reimbursed for having to, for instance, move voting precincts, get extra generators in to get the election going, that is what states are figuring out now, and that's the most likely scenario here is that people may find out their voting place is moved in order to get power to them, things like that, but the idea of a delay right now, that seems to be way, way out of the question and very, very unlikely. >> and very quickly, chuck, we are seeing an effect on early voting in swing states affeceç by the storm. >> reporter: well, that is true. particularly virginia is the place when you look at the battleground states that's most affected by this, a little bit in ohio. so some things i know that maryland delayed some early votes so there's some of those delays. right now it doesn't seem to have a huge impact yet. >> all right. chuck todd, thank you. just ahead, what you need to do before filing an insurance
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claim, and many people waking up realizing that they may need to do that very soon. many homes suffering extensive damage in the storm. we'll have the information you need to know after a check of your local news. >> this is a wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> good morning. i am mindy basara. tony, what is going on? >> this storm itself, what is left of it, is travelling throughout western maryland right now. we have light to moderate rain out there. cold rain. there is even an indication that there could be a few snowflakes and the northwest suburbs of baltimore. it feels like winter out there. the winds are still gusting up to 25 miles per hour. wind chills are in the mid- thirties.
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steady rain this morning, wendy, and the winds will diminish as we head through the day. the showers will become scattered this afternoon. wind chills will stay and of the 30's. chance for rain shower or snow showers tonight. let's see what is happening on the roads. >> mandatory driving restrictions if you travel between now and 12:00. after 12:00, they lift those restrictions. in terms of problems elsewhere, we are still dealing with some. southbound 83 just past timonium road, we have some debris in the road. that is not the only place you will see it around the area as the cleanup process continues. down a tree at gambrills road. you want to head out on 176 and central avenue, flooding and issued there. bay bridge is still closed pending inspection. a very light volume around area.
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>> that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. back with another 0 live update at 8:55.
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it's 89:30 now on a tuesday morning, october 30th, 2012. there is a look at narragansett, rhode island right along the shore. one of the many beautiful and historic towns in that state. they had widespread damage caused by hurricane sandy, and, again, this is a story that's being repeated all up and down the east coast. it really shows you the size and the intensity of that storm.
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narragansett about 300 miles from where sandy actually made landfall near atlantic city, new jersey. i'm matt lauer along with savannah guthrie. >> good to see the work of repair already getting under way. this could be one of the costliest national disasters in u.s. history, and it can get pretty complicated to figure out what is covered by your homeowners insurance. we'll have good answers coming up. >> obviously, i don't think we have to tell you, travel in this region is basically at a standstill. the impact being felt on the airlines across the country, and even around the world, so what do you do if you need to go somewhere, or you booked a flight that's now been cancelled? we'll get advice from an expert on that as well, but first let's go to nbc's jeff rossen. he's driving around in lower manhattan and seeing what he can find. jeff, good morning again. jeff, can you hear us. >> reporter: apologize. we just lost our -- lost our phone connection. the phone service here in
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manhattan is absolutely terrible. want to show you for all of you who have been living through this storm and we heard the wind and the rain pounding against our windows, it's hard to imagine what was actually flying through the air, and we actually have an idea now. look at pieces of plywood that fell on top of cars. if you look over here, and this is just in the streets here of manhattan, talking about metal pipes. this piece of typing, i mean, it's pretty heavy, off a local building. this is the kind of thing that can -- that can hit cars and actually people. i mean, here's something in the middle of the avenue. this piece of metal is so heavy, i was trying to -- i can't even pick it up, so that's the strength of this storm, and how much debris was flying through the air. if you look down the street, i mean, people with daylight are now just beginning to come out of their homes, con-ed is out trying to restore power, and we should mention evidenced by the traffic lights right up here, there is no power to any of these buildings. no power to the traffic lights.
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we've been driving all over manhattan this morning. in fact, we're broadcasting right now. my camera man has a backpack on. no trucks. we've been able to be pretty mobile driving through the streets, absolutely eerie. it's absolute mayhem in the middle of manhattan. no traffic lights and no one really knows where to go, and can you see people are coming out into the streets taking photos, trying to find their vehicles, which, by the way, are strewn up and down these streets. the water in this area had actually been so high, and we showed you earlier in the show, cars have been moved perpendicular to the street, floating away, and so that's the situation we're dealing with. bill, if we can swing around right here. here's another piece of plywood. this is a major new york city manhattan avenue, and there are pieces of wood absolutely still in the street. people are just trying to figure out now when they are going to get their power back. by the way, the answer to that question, very much unclear. we actually were speaking with some con-ed workers earlier and
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said what do you think this can happen? what's the estimate? a man told our producer jen long don't know when. we don't even know where to start, and so as we can give you another live picture down the street here. people just beginning to get to their cars. here's a con-ed car trying to figure out exactly where to go. one other important note before we go, matt and savannah, there are pulledles, and if you're watching in the new york and new jersey area right now, there are puddles, and you walk through these puddles and you think to yourself everything is fine. a woman had been electrocuted by walking in one of those puddles. you can also fall into a manhole so that's the situation here. again, i cannot hear you, so i cannot answer any questions so back to you. >> jeff rossen, thank you very much. something we take for advantage, the sun streaming down behind us and there's a young lady behind us with a sign you saw earlier that says -- >> mom, i'm okay, and we are4cv
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happy to hear that. >> we want to go further up the coast now. sandy, of course, brought high winds and a damaging storm surge to parts of rhode island's coast. showed you some of those images. nbc's stephanie gosk is in hard hit narragansett, rhode island. stephanie, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, savannah. well, the day after a storm like this is a day to assess, and it's a day to start to clean up. police have closed off this road behind me so they can clean it up. what you're looking at is the debris that came over the sea wall over the course of yesterday. we watched it pound hour after hour, and as high tide hit last night, it breached the sea wall and flowed into this town, so there is massive damage here and also along the coast of rhode island, a lot of the coastal communities here were evacuated. people now are going to try to get back to their homes and figure out just how bad it was. some of those people know how bad it is already. he's the owner of this restaurant behind me called the coast guard house. we actually had dinner there sunday night, and it has been
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basically destroyed. all of the windows blown out and all of the furniture in the ocean are up on the streets. he's not sure where he's going to get the money or the time even to fix t.savannah? >> all right. stephanie, thanks. >> that restaurant has been there for years and years. i used to live in rhode island. been there many times. he's in point pleasant beach, new jersey. >> al? >> seems like we had a little bit of trouble communicating with al this morning. we will check back with you in just a little while. >> there's so many aspects of this story. one of them is the economic impact. the stock market is closed for a second day in a row so what impact will the storm have as this nation is still trying to recover. jim cramer is the host of "mad money" on cnbc. he is at cnbc headquarters in new jersey this morning. jim, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> stock market closed for a second day. i assume you think that's a good call. >> this is one of those things where if you can't get to it, we
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still need humans, you think it's all by machines, it's not. this has only happened 1888. extremely unusual, but, yes, there will be no action today at all. >> as you mentioned, yes, you do need to have people physically there, but we do do a lot of trading electronically now. wasn't there also a concern that there might be some manipulation had the markets opened. >> there could be so few players that you could move stocks in one direction if you had a couple million dollars. what people don't recognize is even though we can trade machine to machine, if individuals aren't involved, there is a capability for true mayhem, and i think that was a great reason why there should be no trading today. >> we are hearing figures this morning, early estimates, absolutely staggering, about tens of billions of dollars in damage from this storm, and i'm sure everyone has the same thought. we are already an economy that is struggling. what larger impact do you think it might have? >> okay. last time irene, right now, 7 billion initial estimate, totally wrong.
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it ultimately was 15 billion. there's about 20 billion that came into the economy from federal payment and from insurance. katrina, $100 billion, again, took a long time to rebuild what. i would say is the initial impact is very, very bad, but when the federal government gets involved, waves its wand, and when the insurers pay, you tend to have a very quick rebound that can actually help, if it's huge enough, the gross domestic product of the united states. >> i want toé@ focus in on tha not to be intencenssensitive to people are dealing with, but there are serb sectors of the economy that will benefit. i would assume the construction industry, to start with one. >> yes. hurricane andrew in 1992, the construction industry boomed. the lumber industry boomed. glass. a lot of companies simply had to send everything down to florida, and that raised the praise across the board throughout the united states. highly unusual. that was pretty much the only time that i've seen the gross national product really jump off of a hurricane. this could be like that. that's how big this one might end up being. >> and very quickly, i'm sure
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you had heard rumors, reports that potentially the federal government would have to delay the jobs report that's expected on friday. do you have anything, the latest on that? >> as of this morning, the quote that we're getting from labor is they are still hopeful that we will see a number that is probably the most important number before the election. >> all right. jim cramer at cnbc headquarters, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> let's give this another shot to go to al in point pleasant beach, new jersey. al, sorry we cut away from you so quickly before. you sounded from our end a little like mr. roboto so we're back to you now. >> i have been working on that while the lights were out here. again, besides sandy here in the northeast, in the northwest there are big problems as well as we take a look at the map. heavy rain throughout the pacific northwest. 1 to 2 inches not unlikely. in fact, it's going to be a mess there for the next couple of days. through the southwest, gorgeous weather. plenty of sunshine. windy conditions though all the way back through the great lakes and down into the southeast because of sandy.
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for tomorrow more of the same. the winds hang on, although not quite as bad throughout the northeast and new england. rain continues into the plains. beautiful weather works its way through the southwest all the way back into southern california and back as far east as texas. that's w >> good morning. what is left of sandy is still drifting through parts of the area. it will be windy and cold today. theest all the >> and that's your latest weather. savannah? >> all right, al, thank you. coming up next, how you get to where you need to go if sandy has thrown a wrench into your
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travel plans, but first this is "today" on nbc.
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i've always been lucky. flew 37 bombing missions over germany. made it home every time. i'm lucky to have good friends who are all still around, and we're all lucky to have a friend named ben. ben's protected our medicare and veterans' benefits. and he's helping my 13 grandchildren afford college. he's my friend, ben. i hope he's your friend, too.
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i'm ben cardin, and i'm honored to approve this message. we're back now with more on the impact of hurricane sandy up and down the east coast. the storm created a travel logjam coast to coast. thousands of flights were cancelled for a second straight day. nbc's tom costello is at reagan national airport. tom, good morning. >> good morning, matt, and this place, as we have shown you yesterday and today, is absolutely deserted. the flight status boards all show that every flight is cancelled. the numbers today, we just got from flight stats, 5,700 flights cancelled along the east coast or flights to or from the east coast, and along the course of this storm, we've now got hundreds of thousands of passengers who have been inconvenienced by the storm. this massive storm has turned out to be a halloween week nightmare with travelers going nowhere fast. from d.c. to chicago to san
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diego, cancelled is again the word of the day for flights coming to or from the east coast. all day long, hurricane sandy has been waging a war with a berm, a dune that had been built after a nor'easter in 1992. well, finally hurricane sandy has won. >> reporter: with one eye on al roker and the weather channel, all of the airlines, u.s. airways, united, delta, southwest, american, jetblue, are again today cancelling flights into the airports hardest hit by the storm and high winds. washington, baltimore, philly, new york and boston. inside the terminals are deserted. outside the gates and runways are empty. by 6:00 p.m. monday 14,000 flight cancellations and climbing fast. in d.c. we found two foreign exchange students from italy stuck, unable to get back to rochester. >> we wanted to spend a couple of days in washington, but then -- and then come back to
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rochester in a few days, but then this happened so the weather, and we are stuck here. >> reporter: in l.a., nathan cooper is also stuck trying to get back to newark. >> i stood in line for five hours to get to our flight. >> reporter: and in paris jeff barron was one of thousands of travelers stuck in europe unable to get back to the states. >> we obviously need to get a place to stay here in paris. >> reporter: airlines have moved their planes out of harm's way, parking them at airports across the country. >> and then we have another manager on duty. >> reporter: cnbc's phil lebeau was at delta headquarters in atlanta. >> all together sa! will be responsible for delta cancelling more than 2,500 flights and forcing 75,000 passengers to rebook their flights. >> i think we'll be able to operate through most of the rest of the impact once we get past early morning wednesday. >> reporter: meanwhile, amtrak's northeast corridor remains shut down. new york's grand central station empty. subways shut down up and down the east coast as sandy's travel
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impact extends both near and far. we checked with orbitz.com. they tell us hotel bookings have soared as a result of this storm and in new york hotel bookings up 14% in just one week, d.c. up 24%, and philly up 50% all because of sandy. matt, back to you. >> all right. tomjf costello at reagan nation, thanks very much. kate meks maxwell is editor-in-chief of u-8 jetsetter.com. best advice when you need to rebook a flight? >> 14,000 flight cancellations so be patient. it will take a while for everyone to be moving again >> when are you entitled to a full refund? >> if your flight has been delayed by at least two hours or cancelled. >> have most airlines now waived the rebooking fees? >> they have, yes. >> let's say you have booked a flight or a hotel through one of the travel websites like expedia
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or orbitz. do you go back through the website, or do you call the airlines directly? >> go back to the website, expedia, orbitz, travelocity. >> for people stuck at airports, will airlines pay for your hotel because a flight was cancelled due to a force of nature? >> unfortunately they won't. they are not obliged to pay for weather-related cancellations. however, if you're traveling internationally on an international carrier, they will pay for your hotel. >> which means you're the traveler, you've got to pay for the hotel. what's the best way to negotiate the best price for a rate, especially if you're going to be stuck for a couple of days? >> at the moment there are things called distress rates that hotels offer, particularly hotels around the airport. having said that you might find a cheaper rate just by going online and shopping around. >> if you're trying to monitor the status of upcoming flights, find out when things are back online, what's the best way to check that? >> check the airline's websites, but i really recommend going on twitter, airlines, hotels as
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well, tend to update more often on twitter. >> kate maxwell, always good information. thank you very much. >> thanks very much. >> appreciate t.8:47, back with much more on sandy's aftermath on the east coast, but first this is "today" on nbc.
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back now with more of our storm coverage, and we're just beginning to see the full extent of the damage, but when all is said and done, it could be one of the costliest natural disasters in u.s. history, so what should you do if your home is damaged? robert hartwig is the president of the insurance information institute. to you. >> good morning. >> first thing to know, if you have homeowners insurance, that doesn't necessarily mean it covers flooding? >> that's right. your typical homeowners insurance policy does not cover flooding. most people who live in the most flood-prone areas will have a policy through the national flood insurance program. >> needless to say, if you have damage, it's too late to call your insurance company now and
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try to get that coverage. >> well, yes, it's after the fact. what we're going to want to do inspect your property this morning. go out and stake a look. if you've got damage, document it. take photographs and then call your agent or insurance company right away, and the claim process will begin. >> you say call the appointment to get an adjustor to come out. how soon is it reasonable to expect an adjustor to be able to come out and inspect the premises? >> all the major insurers have inspectors marshalled into the area. they will be moving into the affected areas today and throughout the rest of the week. >> after you speak to the adjustor, the next tip is get a trusted contractor. that's surprising. it's not the insurance company that finds the contractor. have you to do it? >> that's right. you can work with a contractor you have familiarity with, your neighbors have used, have you used, go with someone you trust. may need an estimate or two but use that contractor you've used in the past. >> how do you know if your insurance is goingywn to be ablo cover all of the damage? >> well, wind damage from hurricanes is covered by homeowners insurance, and fortunately we don't see many homes that are completely destroyed here, and people
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should have ample coverage for that. if you're in a flood-prone area, in coastal new jersey, you should have the flood policy in place. >> hopefully they will find out this morning indeed they do. thank you for the information this morning. thank you. >> we are back with much more, but first this is "today" on neighbors.
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nbc. viewers have been great
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about sending us some images of the storm over the last 24 to 36 hours. want to go through a couple more of those. here in atlantic city, new jersey, already told you the story, how the flooding was severe there, going from the ocean to the bay in many places. >> yeah. in atlantic city today they are waking up to streets that look like the beach, and as we continue to look through some of the pictures that we've been seeing. a lot from atlantic city, appears to be the boardwalk and huge swaths of that are now in the ocean. >> we spoke to the mayor of atlantic city who said obviously it's going to take weeks to get that city back on track. may not be a hurricane anymore, but it's going to be impacting us for weeks to come. >> we'll see you after a check of your local news. >> could potentially have fatal consequences. >> and our hearts and our prayers go to them. >> this is a massive storm. hurricane force winds extend some 175 miles in every direction. >> it's come north and now hooked off to the left. we have never seen that.
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>> up and down the jersey shore, i gather we are the target, the bullseye at this point. >> fema is here on the ground working with us here at the rock. >> dramatic rescue at sea today. >> first survivors coming out of the raft. >> the pictures here are worth a,000 words. >> hurricane sandy has been waging a war. the dune has been destroyed. the ocean is now rushing in. >> this crane is now dangerously dangling over the street. >> the island of manhattan all but shut off. no way in. no way out. >> long beach is flooding. that flooding is expected to get worse. >> we lost a transformer. everybody is okay. we're fine. >> you can see that the fire is just burning up on that front lawn. that many serious flooding. they shot down the highway because it was completely submerged. stay put. stay at home. every street, you don't know what you're going to find >> >> look at these waves out here. look at that surf.
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13,000 volts of electricity. nothing to play with. >> whoa, whoa! i think it's time to go. >> much of manhattan, many of the neighborhoods in lower manhattan dark at this hour. >> trying to get the patients, 2156 them out of nyu langone medical center. on the backup generator failed. >> ocean water spilling over. >> lived down here all our lives, you know what i mean, we like it down here. it's a shame that stuff like this happens. >> this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> good morning. i am mindy basara. out big story, the aftermath of hurricane sandy. at the inner harbor, the two pavilions of being threatened by water. at the wonders of not spilled into pratt or lombard streets.
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>> the storm is starting to wind it down now. the circulation is in western pennsylvania. we are stuck with a very cold rain, and a few snowflakes are mixing in with raindrops. it will not accumulate, but it will be a chilly day. will be a chilly day.
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